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# RFK Jr. Aims to ‘Free FDA from Corporate Capture’
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/rfk-jr-aims-to-free-fda-from-corporate-capture/
- Published: 2024-11-15T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T14:47:10.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: FDA Policy/General, #legacy-id-D5158198

President-elect **Donald Trump**’s pick as HHS secretary **Robert F. Kennedy Jr.** is promising to “free the agencies,” including FDA, “from the smothering cloud of corporate capture so they can pursue their mission to make Americans once again the healthiest people on Earth. In a 11/15 statement delivered after Trump announced his nomination, RFK Jr. said he and his team “will clean up corruption, stop the revolving door between industry and government, and return our health agencies to their rich tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science.”

Meanwhile, NBC News [reports](https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-employees-consider-handle-rfk-jr-leaving-rcna180115?ref=fdaweb.com) it has learned from one current and three unnamed former government officials that due to the uncertainty RFK Jr.’s statements have created and the Trump promises to dismantle parts of the government, there could be a small exodus of FDA staff abandoning government work or retiring. The former officials are still in touch with colleagues who work at FDA.

Earlier this week, FDA commissioner **Robert Califf** was asked during a keynote address at the Friends of Cancer Research’s annual meeting whether he expected any exodus of employees because of the uncertainty from the incoming administration, and he said, “I think people are waiting to see… We just don’t know what’s going to happen now. I do think it’s pretty clear that the gist of this administration from everything that’s been said is to change a lot of things and how it gets changed depends on who gets appointed into key positions and how the various policies play out.”

Former FDA chief counsel (**George W. Bush**) **Dan Troy** told [Reuters](https://www.aol.com/news/analysis-rfk-jr-vow-purge-110332738.html?ref=fdaweb.com) that he did not expect any “seismic changes” from RFK Jr.’s nomination. Even if RFK Jr. or other political appointees were able to terminate a substantial number of staff, “who are you going to put in their place? Who has the technical expertise to write these rules that are going to really change the paradigm?” he asked.

Disrupting FDA too much may cause some blowback from the medical products industry, who pay almost half of FDA’s budget through user fees. Some industry leaders are already calling for restraint in targeting the agency for any significant changes. “My hope, my belief, is people will see the good work the FDA is doing today and continue to reinforce this,” Reuters quoted AstraZeneca CEO **Pascal Soriot** as saying. “The FDA has really been for many years not only the reference in terms of regulatory authority in the world, but also the most innovative and the fastest in approving medicines that really are differentiated.”